Doctor Who_ The Sleep of Reason - Martin Day [100]
It began to advance on her.
James Abel was waiting for Liz and the others in the canteen doorway.
‘Where is everyone?’ asked Trix.
‘Change of plan,’ said James. ‘Dr Smith’s come back from the folly. He reckons everyone should gather down in the basement. It’ll be safer there.’
‘You got everyone together?’ asked Liz.
‘Everyone’s accounted for,’ explained James smoothly. ‘Including your husband.’
Liz said nothing.
‘We’d better get going, then,’ said Fitz.
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Liz noticed that Trix continued to stare into the dining area for a moment longer, as if suspecting some sort of trick, that everyone was just waiting to leap out and yell ‘Surprise!’ at the top of their voices. Then she turned to follow the others.
They made their way to the stairs, passing through empty and silent corridors. James had certainly done a good job.
‘Did you have to deal with any fights?’ asked Fitz.
‘One or two,’ said James, nursing one hand like a threatening night-club bouncer. ‘I think things are starting to settle down now.’
‘Good,’ said Fitz. ‘Maybe the Doctor’s sorted everything out.’
‘I can’t imagine it will be that simple,’ said Trix.
‘And Laska was with Dr Smith?’ asked Liz.
Liz picked up the slightest of pauses before James’s reply. ‘Yes. Of course.’
She glanced at the others but only Trix seemed to be eyeing James with any suspicion. Fitz was trotting alongside the nurse, chattering away like nothing was the matter.
Trix interrupted Fitz impatiently. ‘James. . . are you sure the Doctor asked us to come down here?’
‘Oh yes,’ said James. ‘He went up to the folly, right? Sorted everything out.
Just like Fitz said.’
‘Then why have we got to wait down here?’ asked Liz.
They were coming down the stairs now, into the cold void of the basement, at the centre of which sat the chapel.
‘Dr Smith said he’d explain everything. We’ve just got to stay here for a bit.
Then it’s all over.’
There didn’t seem to be any option but to step into the chapel.
James seemed to be true to his word. Every patient, every member of staff, was gathered there. Liz saw that Joe and Susannah were standing in the corner, near the body of the patient who had committed suicide. Everyone else looked tired and dishevelled, huddled in whatever blankets they could find. Some sat, or lay, on the pews. Most paced the room, gathering in small groups to talk animatedly. It looked not unlike a tube station during the Blitz.
On top of the fear and trepidation, Liz became aware of something else.
It was difficult to disentangle her external senses from her inner sense of confusion and contradictory anger, but the broiling evil, the darkness, did not seem to have diminished in the slightest.
She turned, about to ask James where Smith and Laska were.
James Abel had pulled shut the door and was just locking a great padlock into place – a padlock that Liz did not recognise.
‘What the hell’s going on, James?’ she asked.
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Job done, he straightened, pocketing the key. ‘It’s like I said. It’ll all be over soon.’
His face seemed to twist and melt like a candle of wax. His eyes took on an unnatural brightness of their own.
He pulled a huge Zippo lighter from his pocket, flicked it and ignited it in one movement. He stared at the guttering flame for a moment as if mesmerised.
Even Fitz had realised that something was very wrong now. He turned on the spot, fists ready.
‘Don’t try to resist,’ said James in a singsong voice that wasn’t quite his own.
‘Just accept the inevitable.’
‘What’s going to happen?’ asked Trix.
‘What should have happened last time,’ said James.
Behind him, the door was being transformed – or, rather, overlaid with another portal, another aspect of reality. Within this ever-changing tunnel Liz could make out what seemed at first a haze, then a shadow, then something with gradually strengthening form. It was huge, towering over James. In outline at least it was a creature that merged seamlessly from humanoid to spider, rearing up like a great centaur – like the creature Thomson had said he